Summary:The Price Is Right has long been a staple of daytime and nighttime television. It has seen five incarnations: the 1956-1965 daytime version hosted by Bill Cullen on NBC and ABC, the 1972-1980 nighttime version hosted by Dennis James and Bob Barker, the 1985 nighttime version hosted by Tom Kennedy, the 1994-1995 nighttime version hosted by Doug Davidson, and the current daytime version hosted by Barker and Drew Carey. This guide covers the current daytime version.
The object of The Price Is Right is to correctly guess the retail prices of items, without going over, to either win the items themselves or other prizes.
At the beginning of each show, the announcer calls out the names of four contestants, imploring each to "come on down!" A prize is announced for which each contestant (one at a time) makes a bid (called the One Bid). After the host announces the actual retail price, the contestant who bid closest without going over is invited on stage to play a pricing game for a larger prize. If a contestant's bid is exactly correct, he/she wins a $500 bonus (on the Armed Forces and $1,000,000 Spectacular Specials, the bonus for an exact bid is $1000).
Frequently, during Barker's tenure as host, an animal would be brought out on stage by one of the models during the One Bid prize plugs. Barker would then comment that the pet was availale for adoption at an area animal shelter. He also encouraged viewers to visit their local humane society.
Pricing game prizes often include cars (American cars only since circa 1992), trips, rooms of furniture, cash, and various other items. Furs were also given away during the early years, but this practice was dropped per Barker's wishes due to his involvement with animal-rights issues. The episodes that offer furs as prizes will likely never be seen again as Barker continues to fight against their re-airing. There were over 100 total individual pricing games with 75 in the current rotation. Some games involved pricing grocery or small, everyday items. Others involved chance, deduction, skill and/or patience. Many games quickly became very popular. Contestants chomp at the bit to play such entries as Plinko, Ten Chances, Cliff Hangers, Any Number, Grocery Game, Range Game, Race Game, and many others. While each of the pricing games uses only one player, there was one game (known by fans as Bullseye 2) which used two players. This game, which was retired during the first season, had the players alternating bids on...